Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ What If ❯ Meet the Parents ( Chapter 5 )

"Stop picking at them," Meryl ordered when she noticed Vash fidgeting with his jacket's buttons.

"Sorry. Nervous habit."

Meryl frowned as she drove. "What is there to be nervous about?"

"Well," he leaned over and whispered, "I'm going to be meeting your parents. I shouldn't be nervous about their finding out that I've been shmoozing-"

"Shmoozing!?!" she shrieked, further infuriated by Millie's giggle.

"-with their daughter for the last month?"

Millie's giggle erupted into a full fledged laugh. "What is so funny, Millie?" Meryl demanded hotly.

"Really, Meryl," the tall woman said once she had caught her breath, "I'd be surprised if they don't already know."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Millie blushed. "Well, the people in the apartments around yours, and in the rooms next to ours on that sand steamer already know. And news travels fast."

Meryl flushed a deep red and concentrated on where she was driving. After an uncomfortable silence, she said, "We'll be at my parents' house in about fifteen minutes. Please don't embarrass me. No jokes," she ordered Vash.

He stared out the side window, looking preoccupied. The expression on his face gave Meryl the shivers: It was the look he had whenever he was involved in a life and death situation. When Meryl and Millie both tried to get his attention, both of them failed.

Vash didn't react until the car stopped in front of a large house outside of a small town. The first thing he did was tuck his two handguns underneath the seat. Meryl left her cloak on the driver's seat, and Millie took the Cross Punisher off of the vehicle's roof and set it onto the backseat floor.

Meryl walked around the car and came up next to the obviously nervous gunman. "Well," she said, linking her arm through his and frowning at an unfamiliar black cat sitting on the front porch of her parents' house, "let's go meet my parents."

The door was answered by Meryl's mother, a dark haired woman slightly taller than her daughter. "Meryl? Is that really you?" the older woman asked.

The petite woman let go of Vash to hug her mother. "I came for a short visit," she said.

"Who is it, Mary?" a deep voice from inside the house asked.

Meryl's mother turned her head. "It's Meryl, Jonathon," she called back. "She's here for a visit, and she brought some friends."

A tall, distinguished looking man with graying brown hair came to the door. "Well, I recognize Millie back there. Haven't seen her since just after Vash the Stampede destroyed Augusta. Hi, Millie."

Millie waved over the shoulder of the suddenly pale Vash. "And who is this young man?" Mary asked.

Meryl started to answer for him, but the gunman cut her off before she could say anything. "Ericks," he answered quickly, sticking his arm to shake Jonathon's hand. "My name is Ericks."

The older man took in Vash and Meryl's linked arms with a glance. "Well, come on in. A friend of our daughter's is a friend of ours. Millie knows that."

"Yup," the tall woman chirped, pushing her way in between Vash and Meryl. "Thank you, Mr. Stryfe."

The conversation continued in the sitting room, where the five of them were arrayed on a handful of couches and lounge chairs. "So, what brings you all out here?" Jonathon asked. "Meryl doesn't visit very often, so I doubt it's to let us meet her latest boyfriend."

Vash coughed uncomfortably. Meryl, blushing again, spoke up. "Actually, Vash-er, Ericks here just heard about Grandma Saverem and had some questions he wanted to ask."

Meryl's mother gave the blonde haired man a suspicious look. "And why would he be interested in a woman who died almost twenty years ago?"

"Because-"

"Please," Vash interjected quietly, "tell me. Was her name Rem?"

Jonathon sat up straight. "Why do you ask?"

Mary held her hand out to her husband. "Only two people we know of know that name," she said. "What is it's importance to you?"

Vash ran his hand through his spiked hair. "Someone I, uh, know told me about her. And how important she was to him, all the way back to when the ships crashed on this planet." He leaned forward suddenly, gazing intently at the older woman. "Please tell me, was that her name?"

"Yes," she answered in a whisper. Slowly, she stood up. "Please wait for a moment," she requested. "I'll be right back."

She was gone for almost five minutes upstairs, rummaging around in one of the rooms. Almost unconsciously, Vash reached over and took Meryl's hand in his own; the movement wasn't lost on Jonathon, whose suspicious look turned outright hostile.

When Mary came back to the sitting room, she stopped directly in front of Vash. "Here," she said. "Momma told me that one day, either a tall blonde man or a tall white haired man would come here asking about her. When that happened, she said, I was to give them this. They would know what to do with it."

She handed him a disk shaped object that was about four inches thick. In the center of the top was what almost looked like a light bulb. Jonathon leaned forward and pointed at the object. "Do you know what that is?" he asked, his hostility temporarily forgotten. "We haven't been able to figure it out."

"I know," Vash nodded. "If you rub your finger against this edge here, a small needle will come out. It draws a single drop of blood, correct?"

Mary nodded. "But what is it?"

The Humanoid Typhoon turned the object around in his hands. "Smaller versions of these were used to record holographs, which is images made out of light. They even had enough memory to run small programs. One this size," he continued, hefting the machine in one hand, "has enough memory to have stored brain waves, knowledge, and personality information. Someone showed that to me, once. The hologram acted just like her, sounded like her, even said the same kind of things she would."

A heavy silence fell across the room. "What are you going to do now?" Meryl asked.

In answer, Vash ran his finger across the edge of the disk. He jerked slightly when the needle pricked him, then listened as the machine started to hum. "The needle tests the blood," he told the group of people watching him. "If the right DNA is detected, then the holographic generator will activate, and the program will run."

All at once, a blaze of light erupted out of the top of the generator. Vash got up and set it on the floor in the middle of the room, then sat back down. The beams of light quickly coalesced into the shape of a woman with long dark hair.

"Well," the image of an older Rem Saverem said. "If it isn't Ericks Vash. Or should I say Vash the Stampede?"